Star Wars Celebration III - Indianapolis, IN - April 20-24, 2005

Wednesday

2:00PM - Leave my house to pick up Scott (Fitzhume from the JC boards) in Findlay.

5:30PM - Scott and I arrive at our hotel in Indianapolis (Hyatt Regency). We get our keys and realize that there's no way we're going to be turning these baby's back in. Not long after we reach our room we realize that we should have brought a little switch so that we can both use our laptops at the same time on the internet. Oh well. Something to remember for C4!

6:30PM - We roll over to the convention center so that Scott can pick up his badge and we can pick up our volunteer stuff from Official Pix. Things go pretty smoothly. We head back to the hotel so that Scott can get some work done (they called less than 2 hours into our trip with problems already!).

8:15PM - Scott and I head for the Canterbury Hotel to meet up with the rest of our Lego team for our 8:00PM practice. Oops, I guess we're running late. We meet up with Derek, Erika and Jason (GrandAdmiralStrife, Maulfly and spooky-kid from the JC boards) for our practice. We're overwhelmed by the sheer number of pieces in the kit for the Lego Star Destroyer, but we start to tackle it. Around 10:00PM we hear from another of our team members, Shawn (Jedi Satimber), as he's just getting into town. We decide to stop where we are and go meet up with Shawn and his crew to eat (something Scott and I haven't done since lunch).

10:30PM - Our plan to meet Shawn at the Hard Rock Cafe is scrapped when we discover that the place is closed. We meet up with Shawn and head towards other eateries. We end up at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Sounds good. We sit down and look at our menus and discover that the cheapest item on the menu is $18.95! Ouch! We enjoy our meals and conversation and then head for our respective hotels to grab some shuteye.

Thursday

8:00AM - After a rough night of sleep (4 hours in my own estimation), Scott and I roll out for some breakfast. The doors to Celebration III officially open at 12PM for Fan Club members and Scott has a 501st march at 9:15. We decided to hit the little cafe in our hotel. On our way down in the elevator (which take FOREVER) we're with some other fans. We don't note until later that we shared our elevator with author Aaron Allston, who also eats the same place we do. We decide that it's probably rude to bother him while he eats, so we do not.

9:05AM - Scott heads off in full armor to be a part of the 501st march. I try to grab some shuteye while he's gone and get ready for the start of C3.

12:15PM - After his picture, Scott and I head for Celebration III! Luckily, our Volunteer passes allow us to avoid all of the lines to get in the doors. We decide to check out the store line and discover that it's quite long. Probably too long to allow us to wait in it and still make it to our 3:30PM volunteer shifts with Official Pix. However, we run into Kim and Kieron (Jade-Walker and Moff_D) friends of ours from the Northwest Ohio FanForce and they point out that there's a special volunteer line for the store! We go get in that (right to the front of the line for us!), but we still don't end up getting out of the store until 3:05! It's time to make a mad dash back to the hotel to drop off our loot, get our volunteer shirts and make it back over. At least I got my 4 Vader figures, programs and t-shirts!

3:35PM - Scott and I arrive for our volunteer shifts. I manning the Information Booth from 3:30PM til 8:30PM. It's a busy place as many people have questions about the autograph hall. Finally the autograph hall gets closed down at 8PM and I'm done for the night. Now I get to watch the people that have been sitting/standing in the Opening Ceremonies line file in before we head back to the hotel for some food.

8:10PM - As Scott and I sit there and watch the Opening Ceremonies line go by, we see the end of it go by! And they're still letting people in! Us and a bunch of other volunteers jump in the line and go into Opening Ceremonies, something that I thought I'd miss for sure!

8:45PM - After listening to a jazz band play Star Wars themed music for the past 1/2 hour, it's time for the show to start. A Darth Vader and some stormtroopers enter the room up the aisles and head to stage. Steve Sansweet then removes his helmet as one of the stormtroopers and gets things going. We got some introductions of MC's from stages around the con (including Warwick Davis) and Jay Laga'aia sang Weird Al's "The Saga Begins". Some sneak peaks were offered to a couple of shows as well, including "Star Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes", "1-Man Star Wars Trilogy" and "The Star Wars Musical". We also were treated to video messages from Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Natalie Portman, and Ian McDirmid and Hayden Christensen. The highlight was a video for a track entitled "Battle of the Heroes" that will come on a DVD with the Episode III soundtrack which had footage from all 6 movies. This DVD combines footage from all 6 movies and has tracks from all 6 movies. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

10:45PM - We had planned on meeting up with Kim and Kieron to watch A New Hope, but at this point Scott and I are starved, haven't not eaten since breakfast. We head acrossed the street and almost everything is closed! So we head to Steak N Shake (open 24 hours!) and of course, there's a line. We finally get our food and head back to the room to eat and crash.

Friday

8:00AM - I set the alarm for 7:30, but forget to turn it on. Oh well, the extra sleep didn't kill us. We get around, stop at McDonald's for some breakfast, grab subs from Subway for lunch and head over. We pick up some freebies in the exhibit hall and then head for the "1-Man Star Wars Trilogy".

10:10AM - We talked into the "1-Man Star Wars Trilogy" about 10 minutes after it started (about 1/2 way through A New Hope). There were plenty of seats, so we quickly found some seats. The show is fantastic! We laughed so hard we nearly cried. We immediately made plans to catch the entire show on Saturday. You can find a clip of Charlie Ross's performance at his website - onemanstarwars.com.

11:00AM - We decided that we really didn't have time to do anything before our Official Pix shifts started at noon, so we headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff, eat and relax.

12:00PM - We show up for our Official Pix shifts. I was assigned as guest escort for Michael Sheardley from 12:00PM - 4:00PM. It was really fun. Michael is a very entertaining and nice person. People who didn't even purchase autographs he allowed to come and get pictures taken with him. There were a couple of fans of his work in Dr. Who as well.

4:00PM - I headed over to the Star Destroyer Lego competition even though my replacement at Official Pix was yet to show up (thanks whoever the guy who covered for me was!). We had 8 people show up for the competition (with 2 no-shows). Our team consisted of many people from the Jedi Council forums (Shawn (Jedi_Satimber), Derek (GrandAdmiralStrife), Jason (spooky-kid), Scott (Fitzhume), Hope (Dark_Lady_Jada), myself and then two others whose names I never did catch in all the excitement. Putting the Star Destroyer together was a HUGE challenge. We weren't able to complete it in the 3 hours allotted (though we were fairly close), but neither did the team we were competing against. However, it was ruled that theirs was more complete and they would advance. However, we were given the Star Destroyer lego kit to keep (which was selling for $299). I claimed it as many of the others on our team would be flying home and wouldn't be able to take it with them. Now I just need to get some help to try it again! A very fun experience the competition was... and I got a t-shirt!

7:30PM - Scott and I head back to the hotel to hang out and wait for the crowds to leave the restaraunts. We're both glad we're going to be able to eat before 11:00PM for once.

8:30PM - We hit Hard Time Cafe as it was a place recommended to me by one of my friends. The food was great and reasonably priced (unlike Ruth Chris's!). Scott headed to the con to watch ROTJ and I headed back to the room to chill and see when my family was coming into town. Unfortunately, Scott got turned away at the doors to watch ROTJ and my family didn't hit town til almost 11:00PM. So we just crashed, ready to take Saturday head-on.

Saturday

8:20AM - My parents and son, Gavin, come to our hotel and I go to the convention center with them to get passes for the day. I get worried when I see signs that say they're no longer selling Saturday passes. However, we were able to get passes for my parents and son! Gavin and I head back to the hotel to eat breakfast and leave my parents to wander the convention center, hoping they don't have to go back outside and wait in line.

10:00AM - Gavin and I finish up our breakfast and head back to the convention center to meet Scott to watch Double Trouble, a panel featuring David Prowse (Darth Vader from the OT) and Kenny Baker (R2D2), at 10:30AM. I get ahold of my parents to tell them to meet us for the panel, but they're already in line for something else... to see one of the George Lucas panels! I couldn't believe they had lucked into that. So it was just Scott, Gavin and I for Prowse and Baker. It was an interesting panel as both David and Kenny told some amusing stories. However, Gavin wasn't so interested and wanted to leave about 5 minutes into the hour-long panel. Luckily I was able to entertain him enough to get through it.

11:00AM - We get out of the Prowse/Baker show and Gavin needs to use the restroom. We take care of that and then head off to find my parents. We find them in another show, so Gavin, Scott and I head to the autograph hall. I picked up my volunteer package and got some really good autographs: Amy Allen (Aayla Secura), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Zach Jensen (Kit Fisto), Bai Ling (Senator Bana Breemu), Ian Liston (AT-AT Driver, Wes Janson), Toby Philpott (Jabba Puppeteer), Tim Rose (Salicious Crumb, Admiral Ackbar, Sy Snootles), Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel) and Leeanna Walsman (Zam Wessell). Now it's time to actually pay for some. I get 4 autograph and 2 photo coupons for Gavin and I so that we can get the autographs of Ray Park (Darth Maul) and Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett/Clonetrooper). I got Ray to personalize his autograph to me, but was unable to get any pictures. Temuera Morrison dedicated the other photo to Gavin, who chose a picture of a clone trooper to have autographed instead of one of Temuera as Jango (one of his favorite characters). However, I was able to get a great photo of Temuera shaking Gavin's hand. All in all, both of these guys were great.

12:00PM - A bit hungry, my parents, Gavin and I head over to the Subway at our hotel for lunch. We unload some bags and such in my hotel room and make our way back to the convention center.

1:30PM - We discover the Kid's Room. Gavin loves the place. They have kids lightsaber dueling, so Gavin talks a kid into letting him borrow his lightsaber to participate. He has a great time and we get some really good pictures. Scott calls around 2:45PM to say that they line for the "1-Man Star Wars Trilogy" is getting long and that we should think about heading his way. We finally get Gavin out of the room around 3:00PM and head to where Scott has some seats saved for us for the show.

3:30PM - The "1-Man Star Wars Trilogy" is even better the second time. The room is packed and everyone seems to love the show. Gavin wasn't that sure about it, but seemed to enjoy the sound effects and such that the guy did. If this guy ever does a show close enough, I'll have to get the family together for a trip to see the show.

4:30PM - I have a shift at the FanForce table at 6:00PM so we head to the Fan Fair Hall to check it out. Lots of neat stuff in there, and the place is packed. We check out the diorama's and fan group booths and Gavin's ready to head back to the kids room. Not much of a surprise.

6:00PM - I head down to the FanForce table to work my shift. When I arrived, I met JediBMack, Grimby_the_Hutt and ObiWannaBe at the table. It was cool to meet some people from other FanForces and we got a big surprise when Jedi_Dajuan returned to the table with an engagement ring she had just received! A big congratulations to her! I spent most of my shift talking with Michael (ObiWannaBe) which was really fun since I'd seen him around the boards but didn't really know him. I'll have to keep him and the Rocky Mountain FanForce in mind if I ever make it to Denver. After the hall closed down, I headed back to my hotel to meet up with my parents and Scott.

7:30PM - We headed off to grab some supper. The wait was 2 hours at the Hard Rock Cafe so we headed over to BW3's (though some Donato's pizza would've been a tempting thing to order from the room). Good food and Gavin crashed while we were there.

9:00PM - We got back to our hotel room and got a call from Kim and Kieron as they wanted to stop up with a gift for my daughter Vivian from the FanForce. As Kim handed me the gift, she then had something else to announce. Kieron had asked her to marry him Thursday night and she had said yes! A big congratulations to those two! Also a big thanks to the Black Swamp Squadron for the Max Rebo plush toy for my daughter. I'm sure that she'll love it!

10:00PM - After Kim and Kieron left, we watched a little TV and crashed since since Scott had to be up at 6:15AM to be ready for 501st photos.

Sunday

6:15AM - Scott gets his wakeup call. It's way too early for me to move my butt.

7:30AM - Can't sleep anymore, so I get up, shower and start packing. I'm not sure if I want to head over to C3 since my parents and Gavin are supposed to be over around 9:30AM to take some pictures of Gavin with Scott in his armor. Plus, I'm tired. And ready to see Christa and Vivian for the first time since Wednesday.

9:45AM - Scott and my family show up within about 5 minutes of each other. We get some pictures of Gavin and Scott and then we begin getting ready to depart Indianapolis for home. We check out, but there's no way we're leaving our keys behind like the instructions say.

3:45PM - I drop Scott off at his place and head over to Fazoli's to eat with my parents and Gavin. Then it's home!

4:30PM - The trip ends. Can't wait for Celebration IV!


Big thanks to Scott for coming along and making it one fun trip! And a huge thanks to my parents for bringing Gavin for the weekend. It was great to be able to share the weekend with him.

And of course, I've got some pictures!